Maria Rakowska
102/12 Madaliñskiego Street, 02-506 War saw, Poland
IN MEMORIAM OF PROFESSOR TADEUSZ WOLSKI
Pro fes sor Tadeusz Wolski passed away on March 11, 2005 in age of 81. He is a great per son in the his tory of plant breed ing in Po land. In the text be low we re call Pro fes sor Tadeusz Wolski’s work and achieve ments as our hom age to him.
1. Per son al ity and con tri bu tion to ag ri cul tural sci ences
Plant breed ing is a sci en tific pro fes sion that has had, and con tin ues to have, a pro found im pact on the sur vival of man kind. Plant breed ing is the key to in creas -ing the world’s food sup ply to meet the in creas -ing pop u la tion, which is ex pected to reach 9 bil lion peo ple by 2040. There are many plant breed ing tech niques used in im prov ing food pro duc tion that are well founded in sci ence. How ever, there are many suc cess ful plant-breed ing ap proaches to in creas ing world food pro duc tion that in volve and will con tinue to in volve the cre ative ac tiv i ties of man and are in -deed a fine art.
In a speech cel e brat ing the 50-year an ni ver sary of his pro fes sional life, Prof. Wolski said, “The at trac tive ness of breed ing ce re als ap pears to be di rectly con -nected to bread mul ti pli ca tion.” Dur ing the en tire span of his sci en tific ca reer, he treated his plant breed ing pro fes sion as a vo ca tion, which al ways fas ci nated and ab -sorbed him. He was never sat is fied with his work and he was al ways ask ing for and ex plor ing ways to im prove his re search.
He was born into the Janasz fam ily, a tra di tion ally rel e vant Pol ish plant breed ing fam ily, which was ini ti ated in 1880 when his grand fa ther, Aleksander Janasz, owned a Pol ish plant breed ing com pany. As a 16 year-old, Tadeusz Wolski started his pro fes sional ca reer un der the tu te lage of his mother Maria Janasz- Wolski. He took se cret courses at an un der ground high school dur ing Ger man oc cu pa tion of Po land. Fol low ing World War II, in 1948, he grad u ated from the War saw Ag ri cul ture Uni ver sity. In 1967, he re ceived a Ph.D. de gree with his the sis re search on in -breed ing in rye. In 1976, he got a do cent po si tion at the In sti tute of Plant Breed ing and Ac cli ma ti za tion. In 1989, he was granted the honor of Pro fes sor in Ag ri cul ture from the Pres i dent of Po land.
Communicated by Andrzej Anio³
P L A N T B R E E D I N G A N D S E E D S C I E N C E
Volume 51 2005
Dur ing his pro duc tive plant breed ing ca reer, Prof. Wolski and his col leagues reg -is tered 57 new va ri et ies of ce re als: rye, wheat, and triticale. These new cultivars were de vel oped in breed ing pro grams care fully de signed by Wolski based on solid sci en tific meth ods and the knowl edge of ge net ics, cy tol ogy, bio chem is try, phytopathology, soil sci ence, fer til iza tion tech niques, and nu tri tional sci ence and tech nol ogy. How ever, he never lost sight of the art of his pro fes sion and the im pact of al ways ques tion ing his meth ods and ap proaches to va ri ety im prove ment.
Pro fes sor Wolski is widely known au thor ity and highly re spected through out the world, be cause of his depth of knowl edge, ex pe ri ence, and ac com plish ment in de -vel op ment of new va ri et ies of rye, wheat, and triticale. His va ri et ies are grown in sev eral Eu ro pean coun tries from Scan di na via to Por tu gal as well in the USA, Can -ada, Brazil, Aus tra lia, New Zea land, and South Ko rea. His suc cess as a breeder was achieved by hard work and skill in the uti li za tion of sci en tific knowl edge and tech niques which were de vel oped in close co op er a tion with other Pol ish sci en tists: Pro -fes sors Czeslaw Tarkowski and Danuta Miazga from the Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity in Lublin; Pro fes sors A. Aniol and M. Rakowska from the In sti tute of Plant Breed ing and Ac cli ma ti za tion in Radzików; and Pro fes sor A. Biskupski from the Ag ri cul -tural Uni ver sity in Wroclaw, as in di cated in his pub lished pa pers. In ad di tion, he de vel oped a strong work ing re la tion ship with ce real sci en tists all over the world, which re sulted in many new tech niques and new germplasm be ing uti lized in Po -land.
De spite the Janasz fam ily breed ing en ter prise, as well as Wolski’s na tive farm in Danków be ing na tion al ized in 1952 he did not stop his work on plant breed ing and va ri ety im prove ment. He was the main plant breeder in the na tion al ized Poznan Breed ing Com pany and later in the Danko Com pany. His at ti tude and en thu si asm for ce real im prove ment be came a model to young stu dents in plant breed ing not only in Po land, but also world wide. Pol ish stu dents worked tire lessly with him de -spite low sal a ries and mod est fi nan cial re wards that re sulted from the reg is tra tion of new va ri et ies.
Prof. Wolski was very ac tive and par tic i pated in many na tional and in ter na tional meet ings in clud ing sev eral Eucarpia sym po sia on wheat, rye, and triticale, and the world con gresses on plant ge net ics and breed ing. Very of ten he was an in vited key -note speaker. His ex per tise and will ing ness to share his knowl edge and par tic i pate in long dis cus sions was al ways very much ap pre ci ated. His knowl edge has had con sid er able im pact around the world. His ap proach to breed ing outcross ing spe -cies such as rye has been adapted by many breed ers. He al ways stated that when work ing with out-cross ing spe cies a breeder should not try and pro duce a va ri ety. In stead they should con cen trate on pro duc ing a “mor pho log i cally uni form pop u la -tion” with the de sired ag ro nomic and value-added traits. This is an out stand ing com ment, which has had a pro found in flu ence on breed ers around the world. This ap proach led Prof. Wolski to be come one of the worlds most suc cess ful ce real breed ers.
In rec og ni tion of his mer its in the field of ag ri cul ture, he was elected mem ber of Royal Acad emy of Ag ri cul tural Sci ences of Swe den and the Ag ri cul tural Acad emy of France. In 2000, he was nom i nated a Cor re spond ing Mem ber of the Pol ish Acad -emy of Sci ences. As an ac knowl edge ment of Prof. Wolski’s con tri bu tion to sci ence
and the prac tice of plant breed ing, a de gree of Doc tor Honoris Causa was awarded to by the War saw Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity (1992) and the Ag ri cul tural Uni ver sity of Lublin (1998).
Prof. Wolski’s work is well known to the Pol ish and world com mu nity of plant breed ers through his pub li ca tions. He has pub lished 130 sci en tific manu scripts in Pol ish, in spite of flu ent knowl edge of three for eign lan guages, be cause he re garded his work to be ad dressed pri mar ily to Pol ish breed ers and ce real pro duc ers. This was one of the many ways in which Prof. Wolski con tin u ously ex pressed his pa tri o -tism and ded i ca tion to the im prove ment of Pol ish ce re als.
One of the most dif fi cult of all ce real breed ing pro grams to be suc cess ful is in open-pol li nated rye breed ing, which has been de scribed in de tail in the book “Rye Bi ol ogy” (PWN 1983) ed ited by Prof. C. Tarkowski. It con tains a sub stan tial and land mark con tri bu tion from Prof. Wolski ti tled “His tory of rye breed ing in Eu rope and in Po land; spe cific meth ods of breed ing and eval u a tion of rye lines; achieve -ments in cre ation of new va ri et ies of rye and es ti ma tion of prog ress in the field” that has been stud ied and cop ied by breed ers and stu dents all over the world.
Prof. Wolski has al ways seen a con tin u ous and pros per ous fu ture for rye pro duc -tion in Po land, pro vided that any newly-cre ated va ri et ies of rye main tain unique traits in clud ing: low de mand for soil fer til ity and mois ture-due to its ex tremely large root sys tem; tol er ance to weeds, soil acid ity, and alu mi num tox ic ity, as well as re sis tance to plant dis eases most im por tant for rye pro duc tion in Po land. Prof. Wolski has al ways felt that in Mid dle and East ern Eu rope, rye will con tinue to re -main one of the -main sources of tasty and nu tri tious bread for hu mans and as food and fi ber for an i mal use.
2. New rye va ri ety im prove ment
The rye va ri ety “Dankowskie selekcyjne “ de vel oped by Aleksander Janasz at the end of 19th cen tury was the start ing ma te rial for Wolski’s highly suc cess ful va ri
ety ‘Dankowskie Zlote’, which has been widely grown in Po land and other Eu ro -pean coun tries for over 20 years. The im proved va ri ety of this rye named ‘Danko’, with sig nif i cantly better re sis tance to lodg ing and prehar vest sprout ing, was reg is -tered in 1976 and has been un der con tin u ous cul ti va tion since in the ma jor ity of Mid dle and East ern Eu ro pean coun tries.
Prof. Wolski’s re cent work on rye im prove ment has fo cused on better bak ing qual ity. This was achieved by cross ing sev eral Swed ish, Aus trian, Ger man, Fin ish, and Dutch va ri et ies of rye. The first rye va ri ety ‘Amilo’ with im proved bak ing qual ity re leased in Po land by Prof. Wolski in 1989 and was fol lowed by sev eral va -ri et ies of this type: ‘Warko’ (1991) and ‘Modeno’ (1996).
3. Achieve ments in wheat im prove ment
Uti liz ing the prin ci ple of im proved “har vest in dex” via semidwarf va ri ety pro duc tion, Nor man Borlaug lo cated at the In ter na tional Maize and Wheat Im prove -ment Cen ter CIMMYT in Mex ico de vel oped highly pro duc tive semi-dwarf wheat va ri et ies. These va ri et ies were in tro duced to pro duc tion on a world scale, es pe -cially in In dia and Pa ki stan where they were part of the suc cess known as the “Green Rev o lu tion,” which al le vi ated hun ger in these coun tries. In rec og ni tion of
this Dr. Borlaug was awarded the No ble Peace Prize in 1970. Prof. Wolski used the same prin ci ple and de vel oped the short strawed, highly pro duc tive, and re sis tant to lodg ing win ter wheat va ri ety ‘Grana’, reg is tered in 1976. This va ri ety was a great break through in Pol ish wheat pro duc tion, and has been con tin u ously grown on about 50% of the Pol ish wheat acre age for al most 20 years. Fur ther ef forts of Prof. Wolski and his group have been de voted to the im prove ment of wheat bak ing qual ity, re sis tance to dis eases, and in creased pro duc tiv ity. The first va ri ety in cor po rat -ing those char ac ter is tics was ‘Begra’, which was reg is tered in 1988. Fol low -ing Begra have been sev eral va ri et ies in clud ing ‘Lanca’, ‘Panda’, ‘Luna’, and ‘Alba’.
4. Prog ress in triticale breed ing.
Triticale, the first man-made ce real, ob tained by cross ing wheat and rye, started to be of in ter est to breed ers in the last 50 years. Prof Wolski started his re search on triticale in 1968 us ing hexaploid forms that con tained a full rye ge nome. Prof. Wolski saw that the high photosynthetic po ten tial of triticale, as com pared to other ce re als, cre ated the pos si bil ity of ob tain ing con sid er able gains in pro duc tiv ity. As the pri mary breeder at the Danko Com pany, Prof. Wolski has con tin ued to be very ac tive in Triticale breed ing. Ac cord ing to Prof. Wolski, the value-added traits of triticale are re mark ably suit able to the cli ma tic and soil con di tions, which ex ist in Po land. Triticale grain com po si tion is better for monogastric an i mals (pigs and poul try) when com pared to rye, and its straw is more del i cate, nu tri tious and is suit -able for large an i mals. The soil re quire ments of triticale al low it to grow on very good and or mar ginal rye soils, so it can be used as an al ter na tive ce real for Pol ish farm ers and to re duce the Pol ish over pro duc tion of rye grain, which de spite its poor qual ity, has been a ma jor source of grain for an i mal feed ing. The im prove ment of triticale va ri et ies in terms of their suit abil ity for bread, cook ies and break fast ce re -als pro duc tion, clearly showed Prof. Wolski that the po ten tial for its ap pli ca tion to hu man nu tri tion was very good.
The breed ing of triticale in the Danko Com pany has been con ducted at two, sta -tions Laski in the mid dle part of Po land with se vere cli ma tic con di -tions, and at Choryn in West ern Po land where there is a milder cli mate. Af ter sev eral years of triticale breed ing, Pro fes sors Wolski and Tarkowski de signed a model va ri ety of that was highly suit able for Pol ish ce real pro duc tion. The char ac ter is tics of such a model va ri ety were for mu lated in 24 points, rep re sent ing in struc tions to other triticale breed ers. In or der to ob tain the de sired traits, Prof. Wolski in tro duced sev -eral meth ods of test ing which were based on ear lier bio chem i cal stud ies:
1. Test ing of seed lings for sen si tiv ity to low soil pH and tox ic ity of alu mi num ions ac cord ing to Anio³ (1977),
2. Hagberg-Perten test of grains for pre-har vest sprout ing, 3. De ter mi na tion of pro tein con tent,
4. Amino acid com po si tion of pro tein,
5. Test ing of seeds for con tam i na tion with pests,
6. Feed ing tests for chicken for growth, di gest ibil ity on lab o ra tory rats in the grain stor age fa cil i ties when more grain is avail able,
7. Tests for mill ing ef fi ciency and bak ing qual ity in uni fied lab o ra tory con di -tions.
Clas si cal sur veys were also per formed to test pro duc tiv ity, the length of spikes, num ber of grains per spikelet, num ber of spike lets per spike, num ber of spikes per square me ter, and 1000-grain mass. All of these meth ods in volved plenty of hard work for lots of stu dents, sci en tists, and tech ni cians be cause the mea sure ments were taken in the field over many years on mil lions of in di vid ual plant se lec tions. A spe cial de sign for ex per i men tal fields was used by Prof. Wolski for each of the dif fer ent ce real spe cies de pend ing on whether or not they were self or cross pol li nated, which has been stud ied and adopted by other breed ers in Po land and else -where around the world. Prof. Wolski wrote sev eral in vited book chap ters: “Di rec tions in triticale breed ing and its eval u a tion” and “Meth ods of triticale breed ing,” which rep re sented ex cel lent and unique con tri bu tions de fin ing his ap -proaches to ce real breed ing for va ri ety im prove ment. They are con tained in the book “Bi ol ogy of Triticale”.
Prof. Wolski has al ways felt that the proper choice of pa ren tal wheat and rye ge -no types is one of the most im por tant as pects of triticale breed ing and im prove ment. An openminded close co op er a tion be tween Prof. Wolski and the group of sci en -tists at the Ag ri cul ture Uni ver sity of Lublin un der the su per vi sion of Prof. Tarkowski was of great im por tance. Prof. Wolski also cul ti vated a very ac tive ex -change of ideas, and triticale, wheat, and rye germplasm in co op er a tion with CIMMYT in Mex ico, and Ca na dian, US, and Eu ro pean breed ers.
In his Doc tor Honoris Causa cer e mony speech Prof. Wolski said, “new cre ations of plants are born by the ef fort of the whole group of co op er at ing hu mans in the world.” For ex am ple, the first pol ish va ri ety ‘Lasko’ orig i nated from Hun gar ian and Amer i can triticale par ents, which were crossed with Pol ish wheat and rye. Lasko was reg is tered in Ger many (1982) and has been widely pro duced in the world. How ever, be cause of low win ter har di ness, Lasko was never reg is tered in Po land, but it has been one of the par ents of most all of the cur rent Pol ish triticale va ri et ies.
5. New im proved va ri et ies of triticale.
The new triticale va ri et ies ‘Grado’ and ‘Dagro’ with im proved win ter har di ness have been in com mer cial pro duc tion in Po land since 1986. The ped i gree of these va ri et ies is based on Hun gar ian and Ca na dian va ri ety of Triticale crossed to the Pol ish wheat ‘Grana’, a French- Mex i can wheat and the Pol ish rye ‘Danko’. This is a clear in di ca tion of the var ied germplasm and ap proaches that Prof. Wolski used in his triticale breed ing pro gram to pro duce the best pos si ble va ri et ies for the Pol ish farm ers. In 1989, ‘Presto’, ‘Tewo’, ‘Moreno’, and ‘Wero Wolski’ va ri et ies with im proved pro duc tiv ity, re sis tance to lodg ing and win ter har di ness were re leased for com mer cial pro duc tion. Mex i can spring triticale va ri et ies from CIMMYT in Mex -ico were uti lized as par ents in crosses to Pol ish triticales, which re sulted in bak ing qual ity im prove ment in the va ri et ies ‘Salvo’, ‘Bo lero’, and ‘Moniko’, which were re leased for com mer cial pro duc tion in 1990s. The in tro duc tion of these va ri et ies to Pol ish farm ers, to gether with va ri et ies from the In sti tute of Plant Breed ing and Ac -cli ma ti za tion, re sulted in a triticale pro duc tion area in crease in Po land from about 20 000 ha in 1985 to 800 000 ha in 1992. This is the larg est triticale acre age in -crease in the world.
In Eu rope, Prof. Wolski’s ex cel lent va ri ety ‘Presto’ was reg is tered and pro duced in Swe den, Ger many, Den mark, and France un der the name ‘Al amo’. The new est va ri ety, ‘Prego’, orig i nated from in tro duc ing the gene for dwarf ing HI in rye from Dr. Kobylianski In sti tute in Pe ters burg into the Pol ish triticale ‘Lasko’, which re -sulted in sig nif i cantly im proved win ter har di ness and re sis tance to dis eases and lodg ing. Sig nif i cant prog ress in new va ri et ies pro duc tion was achieved by Prof. Wolski when he cre ated two dwarf triticales ‘Fidelio’ and ‘Pinokio’, which had a much larger, deeper root sys tem, and high mass of 1000 ker nels than did pre vi ous va ri et ies, and were reg is tered in Po land, Swe den, and Fin land,
In sum mary, it can be con cluded that Pro fes sor Tadeusz Wolski was the most out stand ing fig ure in Pol ish plant breed ing dur ing the sec ond half of the 20th cen
tury. The ce real breed ing pro grams de vel oped at the breed ing sta tions where Pro -fes sor Wolski worked re sulted in many va ri et ies of ce re als in clud ing the win ter whet ‘Grana’, rye ‘Dankowskie Zlote’, and the triticale ‘Fidelio’, which have had a pro found im pact on ce real pro duc tion in Po land and the rest of Eu rope. With these cultivars, the most ad vance meth ods of ce real breed ing and the best germplasm were in tro duced to Pol ish ag ri cul ture as well as the rest of Eu rope and around the world. Ce real grain yield in creased from ap prox i mately 2 tons/ha in the early 1960s to the pres ent lev els of over 4 tons/ha and this was in large part due to the new cultivars gen er ated from Pro fes sor Wolski’s breed ing pro grams.
The suc cesses of Pro fes sor Wolski as a plant breeder/sci en tist/teacher have been the re sult of his per son al ity; his uti li za tion of ad vances in sci ence re lated to breed -ing; to his abil ity to se lect and ap ply new meth ods and breed ing ap proaches; and to his uti li za tion of new sources of germplasm for im por tant value added traits. His warm, out go ing per son al ity made pos si ble friendly re la tions with sci en tists in Po land and around the world, which re sulted in the ad ap ta tion of the world’s tech nol -ogy and germplasm for ce real im prove ment in Po land. Last, but not least, his hard work and breed ers in tu ition known as “good breed ers nose,” which is very im por -tant, was not only based on good sci ence, but also in volved a high de gree of art, lead to his ce real cultivars be ing grown in many coun tries, in ad di tion to be ing used as a valu able source of germplasm for other plant breed ers in their quest for ce real im prove ment.
